Easy to find.
Venta Micena – Day 3/30
Because I am here for house sitting, you are probably curious to see the house (although the cat is really more important). It’s a refurbished farmhouse, now quite spacious and luxurious.
The owners were told it’s 100 years old, but then, so allegedly was everything else they inquired about. We agreed on not putting too much credence in the local method to date things. (The region claims to be the place of the first human settlement in Europe.)
The left hand side, the one painted in white, is where I am staying.
The right hand side is a holiday home with space for six people. It’s available on Booking and on AirBnB, if you are interested in a quiet getaway in a beautiful valley. If it will be your first time using AirBnB, you may sign up via this link to receive 25 € in credit. On Booking, you receive 15 € if you sign up via this link.
Venta Micena – Day 2/30
Please meet Grace, the reason for my stay in Venta Micena.
The family for which I am house sitting has had house sitters before, so the cat is used to the situation and accepted me quickly. Now, she already spends a few hours every day in my lap and demands quite a lot of attention.
I have had to deposit books next to every possible chair, planning for the eventuality of being occupied by the cat for several hours in case I sit down.
Posted in Andalusia, Photography, Spain, Travel
Tagged animals, cats, housesitting, Venta Micena
7 Comments
How to get excess baggage on the plane – for free!
Did you know that most airlines have an exception for the baggage weight limit? If you are a student and the excess weight is due to study-related books, they let you pass.
It works every time.
But of course you really need to take non-fiction books with you. Or come up with a good story about writing a thesis on crime fiction.
Venta Micena – Day 1/30
Because I don’t expect much to happen during the coming month in Venta Micena, rather than making up a story where there is none, I am going to post a daily photo to document my life here. I guess that’s what people use Instagraph for, but I still don’t have one of those fancy machines that you need for that.
We shall begin with a view of the village itself.
Next trip: Andalusia
Over the summer, you have already noticed that not much was happening on my blog. The reason was that in July and August, I was living in Vienna, which is, as is generally known and now confirmed by my personal experience, the most livable city in the world. I traveled there with a backpack full of books, notes and good intentions, only to be immediately wooed by the most enchanting city along the Danube. The beautiful weather, the enormous parks, the number of cultural events and many interesting acquaintances didn’t leave me with much time to write. “Who knows if I will ever spend that much time in Vienna again,” I thought and dropped working, writing and studying in favor of daily and, in most cases, aimless strolls.
I have rarely been as happy as during that summer in Vienna. As one lady said, when we were walking through the Hofburg under the full moon: “Vienna makes you fall in love.” Of course, I wanted to inquire whether she only meant the city or me, too, but somehow the conversation quickly returned to the rule of law and Austrian neutrality. Well, another chance gloriously missed.
In any case, after a city so rich in charms, I am looking for a change by moving to a small mountain village. This village is in Andalusia, it’s called Venta Micena, and 42 people are living there, according to the last census, although I honestly doubt whether all of them are still alive. Because when I looked for photos of Venta Micena, I only found these three.
This is the village,
this is the landscape,
and this seems to be the fate of the erstwhile inhabitants.
After receiving a deluge of wishes to visit me in Vienna, I am certain that nobody will want to visit me in Andalusia. And if, I will spot you hours in advance, when your horse will be whirling up dust at the other end of the valley, allowing me enough time to go out and hunt for a steak.
But the readers who were hoping for beautiful photos, or even a postcard, from Andalusia must not despair. Venta Micena obviously doesn’t have an airport, so I will be in Málaga and in Granada for a few days at the beginning and the end of my stay, respectively.
I will leave on Tuesday. Let’s hope that this autumn in Andalusia will extend my summer.
The best season for hiking
… is autumn, I determined last weekend, as I was plucking apples, pears and plums from the trees lining the path from Amberg to Nürnberg in what seemed to be at least a temporary Cockaigne.
Have you seen this dog?
Ok, maybe you have already seen this before.
But I haven’t, so I found it super-funny when I spotted this poster in Alfeld, on a long hike from Ammerthal to Nürnberg.
Bloodbath
Listening to the conversation between the surgeon and her two assistants today, I overheard some things that got me slightly worried (and thankful for that curtain between my head and the part that I was operated on).
“Oh my god! Have you ever seen that?”
“We may have to use the electricity,” was another sentence that I never expected to hear while on the operating table. They brought some belts which looked like the ones from the electric chair.
“Get me a bucket!” (For the blood, apparently.)
At one point, one of the assistants asked “are you OK?”, upon which I reassured her that I felt absolutely fine. “Oh,” she explained, “I was talking to my colleague.” The bloodbath had made her queasy.
Anesthesia is a nice thing. But why don’t patients receive earphones that play Smetana’s Vltava or something similarly soothing?
There is no need to worry about me, by the way!
As long as someone is writing about his visits to the doctor, he isn’t really in any serious condition.
The Happy Hermit 